College is great — don't get me wrong. It's an exciting time in everyone's life to break out of your shells and experience new and wonderful things, but it's no comparison to home. Not even by a long shot.

So one thing I've learned in my first semester is that living on your own kind of sucks. Actually, it sucks quite a bit. You're on your own, you have to do everything yourself, you're living with someone you either love or cannot stand, and — once again — YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. That means you can't be lazy, leave the dishes around and hope someone else picks them up and washes them, and your laundry sure as hell doesn't get up and do itself. Yeah, you make friends and they're super cool and you love them and hanging out with them all the time, but there's only so much you can do together when it gets to be negative two degrees outside and none of you want to leave your beds, or dorms, or buildings. Plus, on the weekends you all go out together and everyone gets a little stir crazy.

College is super, super fun, but after the endless sicknesses, countless hours of lost sleep due to either going out or studying at all hours, it gets old. You get tired and lazy and just want to go home. If I had 10 hands, I could then count how many times I had said, "I can't wait to go home." Also, sleeping on a bed that's not your own and made for a small child gets old after a while. You miss your family, friends, maybe even some old teachers, and you miss the familiarity of it all. I by no means miss high school or the silly standardized tests or busywork our teachers had us do. But I miss my little town and my best friends, and I miss my house, my room, my spot on the couch, having dinner out and not pizza and fries three times a week, and anything else imaginable because there truly is no place like home.